Jennifer Lawrence wasn't first choice for 'Silver Linings Playbook'

Harvey Weinstein recently revealed that Anne Hathaway, not Jennifer Lawrence, was his original choice to star in "Silver Linings Playbook."

Jennifer Lawrence almost didn't get the part that made her name.Credit: Getty Images

In "Silver Linings Playbook," Jennifer Lawrence played a woman who'd gotten married, been widowed, gone crazy with grief and slept her way out of at least one job. Believe it or not, the first choice to play that role was not a 21-year-old.

Harvey Weinstein recently revealed that a different pixie-cut thespian was originally slated for the role: Anne Hathaway was his original choice to play Tiffany. "'Silver Linings Playbook'was originally going to be with Anne Hathaway and Mark Wahlberg," the studio exec told Howard Stern. "And then Anne wasn't doing it. And she's marvelous and wonderful and she was my choice, I love her."

So why wasn't Anne up there yelling and twitching and dancing poorly? Apparently she and director David O. Russell didn't hit it off. "David and Anne had some creative differences," Weinstein said. "They didn't see eye-to-eye."

That's no shocker — David O. Russell is famously difficult to work with. He's gotten into shoving matches with both George Clooney and Lily Tomlin. Hathaway doesn't seem like she'd be very accepting of shoving. And since both she and Lawrence won Oscars that year, she's probably cool with how things worked out. Of course, Jennifer won Best Actress, while Anne nabbed a mere Best Supporting Actress statuette for "Les Miserables." Yeah, she might be grinding her teeth at night over this one.